According to the brønsted-lowry definition of an acid, what happens to an acid when dissolved in water?

According to Bronsted-Lowry, when dissolved in water, an acid can be defined as a proton donor while a base can be defined as a proton acceptor.

Explanation:

The proton is usually in the form of hydrogen ions ( H+ ). Consider:

I.HI(aq) + H2O(l) → H30+(aq) + I-(aq)

II.H2O(l) + NH3(aq) → NH4+(aq) + OH-(aq)

In (I), HI donates the H+ to H2O hence HI is a Bronsted-Lowry acid while H2O is a Bronsted-Lowry base. The I-(aq) is called the conjugate base of the acid HI while the H30+ is called the conjugate acid of the base H2O.

In (II), H2O donates the proton to NH3 so H2O is the Bronsted-Lowry acid and NH3 is the Bronsted-Lowry base. The conjugate base is OH- while the conjugate acid is NH4+.

This means that using the Bronsted-Lowry definition, an acid differs from its conjugate base pair only by a proton.

Notice that H2O can function both as a Bronsted-Lowry acid and Bronsted-Lowry base depending on the type of solution as seen above.

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